Latino Daily News

Brazil Expecting to Harvest 192 Million Tons of Grain this Year

Brazil, one of the world’s leading agricultural producers, expects a record grain harvest this year of 192.3 million tons, up 2.2 percent from 2013, the IBGE statistics agency said Tuesday.

Production will grow chiefly because of a larger area under cultivation, with an increase of 5.9 percent from 53 million hectares (131 million acres) in 2013 to 56.1 million hectares (138.5 million acres) in 2014, the IBGE said.

Soybean, corn and rice, the country’s three main crops, will make up 91 percent of the entire national harvest and take up 85 percent of all the land sown.

Soybean production will hit 86.5 million tons, a 5.8 percent increase over last year due to the growers’ decision to invest in planting the legume as market prices rose relative to corn.

The total corn harvest is estimated at 76.2 million tons, down 5.4 percent from 2013, due to the growers’ shift to soybeans this year.

As for rice, the harvest will come in at around 12.3 million tons, up 4.8 percent.

Among the products with shrinking harvests will be arabica coffee, down 12.8 percent, and sorghum, forecast to decline 10.6 percent, as well as sugarcane, off 0.1 percent.

Brazil, the world’s largest producer and exporter of coffee, will harvest 1.98 tons of the bean this year.